


Permanent Home

by tattoosanta



Series: Alternate Universes [7]
Category: Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Adoptive Parent AU, Alternate Universe, Crossover, Family Bonding, Family Dynamics, Family Fluff, Multi, Single Parent AU, a lot of tags will be added tbh, i also probably forgot characters, most relationships are gradual
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-04-25 05:59:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4949326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tattoosanta/pseuds/tattoosanta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seijuurou didn't go in to the orphanage with the intention of adopting two six year old boys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look, I've made another AU. This one's a crossover AU, which I usually don't do.  
> It probably doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but I assure you it's very cute. I won't even do anything to make it depressing. I promise.

Seijuurou stood at the entrance to the local orphanage by himself. He had made it a goal to visit as many charitable places as possible in order to determine what his company could do to better them. His last stop, of course, was the orphanage. 

“I suppose this is the place, then....” He took a deep breath and pushed the large door in with a bit of force. The lobby seemed deserted, like nobody had been there for a while. He stood quietly as he took his jacket off and looked around. “Hello? Is anyone there?” 

Immediately, the excited squeals of many children alerted him to the nearest closed door. After a while, a young woman with a slightly disheveled looking ponytail came out and offered a sweet smile. “Oh! You must be Akashi-san. I wasn’t expecting you today!” 

“I apologize for coming by unannounced.” Seijuurou said, a light smile coming to his own face. “However, I was in the area and had a bit of time. If you need me to leave, I can.” 

The woman shook her head. “No, don’t worry about it! If you have time, I’d like to give you a tour of our orphanage. If you’d like, you can even meet some of the kids.” She fixed her hair a little bit and turned to start the tour. “They were very excited to hear that someone came by.” 

“I wouldn’t mind.” Seijuurou shook his head and followed after the woman. The place looked nice, at least. Everything was clean and in its place, save for the toys and blankets lying around in certain places. “It all looks very clean here, do you do all the cleaning yourself?” 

“Oh, no, I couldn’t.” The woman giggled. “The teenagers and older children offer to help me on cleaning days, so it’s a joint effort.” She smiled softly and sighed a little bit. “The building is old, so there are some places I’m worried about breaking… but the kids are careful.” 

Seijuurou took a mental note of that and nodded as they ascended the stairs toward the rooms where the kids stayed. “I see. I wouldn’t have been able to tell if you didn’t mention it.” He ran his hand over the engraved railing beside him and smiled just a bit. “You take very good care of it.” 

The woman blinked in surprise. Usually, people complained that the building looked like it was falling apart. Then, along comes probably the wealthiest man in the country and he says it looks well taken care of. A bubbly laugh escaped her lips and she sighed. “I’m so glad you think so.” After a short pause and a few more rooms, she spoke again. “Would you like to meet the kids now?” 

“Sure.” Seijuurou nodded and mentally steeled himself for what was sure to be an onslaught of excited children rushing at him as they went back downstairs. He took a deep breath and waited for the worker to open the door, then stepped in cautiously. 

Immediately, many small children ranging from four to ten came running up to him, stars in their eyes. Two in particular stood out from the rest. Judging by their faces, Seijuurou figured they were about six, but their height completely contradicted that. One had long, unruly purple hair and tired eyes and the other had shorter, neater silver hair and bright eyes.

After most of the crowd had dispersed on the worker’s suggestion, the silver haired one came running up to Seijuurou with the biggest smile on his face. “Hi, Mister!” He greeted enthusiastically with a big wave. “You look really nice!” 

A small smile appeared on Seijuurou’s lips and he bent down to look the little boy in the eye. “Hey,” He started softly, extending his hand for the kid to shake. “you look rather nice as well.” When the boy gripped his hand and shook it violently, he winced a little bit (who knew little kids could be so strong?). “So, what’s your name?” 

“Haiba Lev!” The boy grinned, as if he were proud of his name. He probably was, being so young. It was cute, at least. When he finished smiling like he’d just heard the best news of his life, he looked at Seijuurou as seriously as he could--which wasn’t very serious. “Hey, Mister, are you gonna adopt me?” 

Seijuurou was floored. He felt stuck in concrete. He wasn’t there to adopt, but the look Lev was giving him tugged at just the right heart strings. He cast a glance to the woman who had shown him around, then back to the boy in front of him. In the back of his mind, he knew saying no would be the right thing. Instead, what came out of his mouth was “Sure.” 

Lev’s entire face lit up like fireworks, and he clapped his hands excitedly. “Really?! No way!” Any chance of Seijuurou taking back what he had said disappeared when Lev flashed him the brightest smile he’d ever seen. “Are you gonna adopt Atsushi too?” 

That’s when Seijuurou was alerted to the sudden pressure on his left leg. He looked down to see the purple haired boy clinging tightly to him, his eyes round as saucers and full of hope. “I…” Once again, he looked up to the worker, who had now turned to him and was giving him a knowing smile. Maybe he could say no this time, he just had to steel himself up for the crying that was sure to follow. 

He could’ve said no. Really, he could’ve. But the look he was getting struck a chord, and he sighed in defeat. “...I suppose I will.” He said finally, a small sigh escaping his lips as a gentle smile was brought to his face by the excited looks of the two boys. 

“Wonderful!” The worker exclaimed, alerting all three of them to her presence. “Why don’t you go home for the day, Akashi-san? I’ll get all the paperwork sorted out tonight, and we can start the process tomorrow!” 

Seijuurou nodded and stood straight after giving both boys a pat on the head. “Alright. When do you want me to come by tomorrow, then?” He fixed his clothes and let out a short breath. “Or will any time work?” 

The woman thought, a hand coming to her chin. “Well… Actually, any time would work for us! Just so long as you call about an hour beforehand so I can get your folder ready.” She offered a sweet smile as she nodded as if agreeing with herself. “So, we’ll see you tomorrow!” 

“Right.” Seijuurou nodded and turned to leave, only to be stopped by Lev. He raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked down at the little boy curiously. “Is there something you needed, Lev?” 

“You gotta promise to visit us every day!” Lev pointed at Seijuurou, almost accusingly. “We wanna get to know you better before we go to your house! So you gotta come and talk to us! Okay?” 

Seijuurou chuckled. Children sure were something else. “I promise I’ll come visit every day.” He pat Lev’s head once again and waved a goodbye to them before pushing the door open and leaving the building. 

The drive home was quiet, and he really didn’t think much about what had just happened at the orphanage. That was, until he got inside his house. When he sat down on the couch to breathe, the whole effect of the situation seemed to hit him like a train. “Oh god…” He breathed as he stared at the wall in front him in shock. “What have I just done to myself?”


	2. Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a talk with Tetsuya, the real fun starts. (and by real fun I mean piles of paperwork :D)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this yesterday, but I was so tired I couldn't finish it. ;A;   
> I'll post chapter 3 tonight to make up for it.

Seijuurou sat on his couch in stunned silence for quite a while before the panic really began to set in. He had never been around small children, and he just promised two of them he’d adopt them. What was he thinking? He needed to talk to someone; immediately.

Without much thought, he pulled out his phone and opened his contacts list. Of course, the first name he pulled up was his long-time friend, Tetsuya. He hit the send button and waited for the cyan haired man to pick up while nervously bouncing his knee. “Come on, Tetsuya....”

After a few more rings, the phone seemed to be picked up. “Hello, Akashi-kun.” Tetsuya’s voice said somewhat cheerfully (or as close to cheerfully as Tetsuya could get). “Did you come home from work early? You never call at this time.”

“Well…” Seijuurou started with a sigh. “I think I just made the most expensive mistake of my life.” He ran a hand through his bangs and stared at the ground. “Remind me never to go to an orphanage alone again…”

There was a short pause, presumably so Tetsuya could think about what Seijuurou had just said. “Akashi-kun… Did you adopt a child?” He sounded both amazed and concerned; two emotions usually not found together.

“Two, actually.” Seijuurou mumbled and rested his head in the palm of his hand. “I wasn’t thinking, Tetsuya. The workers are already getting the paperwork, and I can’t back out now.” He mentally cursed himself for not being able to say no to young children; if he had maybe he wouldn’t be in this mess.

Tetsuya sighed from the other end. “How old are they?” He asked after a few seconds of silence. “Maybe they’re old enough to understand impulse decisions--”

“They’re six, Tetsuya.” Seijuurou cut his friend off. “I don’t think they even know what the word impulse means. And besides that... they’re attached to me now. I can’t just leave them there after I promised I would adopt them.”

Tetsuya sighed again. “Akashi-kun, you’re too nice.” He punctuated his sentence with a soft, amused chuckle. “So, what is it you’re the most worried about with these… young boys you’ve promised to adopt?”

“I worry I won’t be a good father.” Seijuurou said, practically forcing the words out of his mouth. “I don’t want them to end up like I did, and I don’t want to screw up somehow. What if I can’t foster positive growth?”

“So, you’re worried you’ll be more like your father than anything?” Tetsuya asked. Of course he never pulled any punches, it was Tetsuya. “Akashi-kun, you’re nothing like him. There’s almost no way you could do such a thing to those kids, whoever they are.”

Seijuurou took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Tetsuya…” He sighed deeply and leaned back into the couch a little bit. “I don’t want to do anything stupid. I’ve never been around children for more than a day before, and I’m still single. What if the stress gets to me and I snap?”

“...Then we’ll talk.” Tetsuya stated firmly. “But right now, I need you to promise me you won’t let the stress get to you. I don’t want you working yourself up over this, it only leads to you getting sick.”

He wasn’t wrong, Seijuurou had to admit that. He took another deep breath and closed his eyes. “I promise. I’ll do my best to forget about my worries. For the time being, at least.” At least… he hoped it would work.

“Good.” Seijuurou could almost hear Tetsuya smile gently upon hearing his promise. “Now I’m going to let you go get some rest and eat something. Don’t do any work tonight, just take the evening to relax and decompress. I’ll come by tomorrow evening and we can talk some more about it.”

Seijuurou nodded a bit. A night just to relax sounded nice; he hadn’t done that in ages. “I won’t work any tonight,” He promised, a bit amused. “and I’ll see you tomorrow Tetsuya.”

“Right.” Tetsuya confirmed. “Have a good night, Akashi-kun. See you tomorrow.” And with that, the line went dead.

Seijuurou sighed and put the phone down, then ran his hands through his hair and glanced at the clock. It was about 5:30 PM. He’d been talking to Tetsuya longer than he thought, but it helped clear his mind. “Alright…” He breathed and pushed himself up off the couch. “I guess I’ll make something to eat… Maybe I’ll go to bed early and try to get some good rest.”

He immediately set himself to fixing something simple for dinner while trying to occupy his mind with other things. Somehow, his thoughts always circled around back to the orphanage and what he’d promised those two boys, and he found himself getting more and more frustrated.

“Why can’t I just let it go?” He groaned, talking to the pan in front of him. “I have so many other things to think about, yet somehow it always comes right back to that.” His eyebrows furrowed, then he rolled his eyes as he felt a headache coming on. He always got headaches when he was stressed, especially after a long day. “...Great, now I’m talking to inanimate objects. I must be going crazy.”

Seijuurou quickly finished cooking and eating dinner, hoping to get rid of the thoughts that kept swimming around in his head. He washed the dishes absently and decided to retire to his room early. A sudden wave of exhaustion washed over him as soon as he was finished changing and sat on the bed, and he couldn’t stop the yawn that wormed its way up through his lips. With another deep sigh, he got under the covers and turned on his bedside lamp as he grabbed the novel he’d been reading.

“Tomorrow’s going to be much more hectic… I hope I can handle this…” He opened his book and began reading, but before he knew it, his eyes were slipping shut, and not a minute later he was sound asleep.

 

\-----------------

 

The sound of the alarm came much too early for Seijuurou’s liking, and he’d really rather just forget about it in favor of a few more hours of sleep. At least, until he realized the bedside lamp had been on all night and there was a book sitting rather uncomfortably against his neck.

“Ugh... “ He sat up slowly and turned the lamp off as he set his book back on the table. “No wonder Tetsuya always tells me it’s a bad idea to bring books to bed.” He rubbed at the sore spot on his neck a bit, then yawned and slowly pushed himself off the bed.

The moment his feet were on the ground, Seijuurou was reminded of the promises he’d made the day before. “God, I’m an idiot.” He suddenly felt like smacking himself upside the head for making such an impulsive decision. “...But, I did promise. I have to stick to my word.” He felt if he didn’t, the guilt would start eating at him until he did anyway. It was much better to just go and get the whole thing over with so he could focus on learning how to parent two boys. Perhaps a trip to the library was in order.

Either way, it was only 5:45 AM. There would be some time for busywork before the orphanage opened. So Seijuurou dressed and freshened up quickly, grabbed some small snack to pick at for breakfast, and sat down at his desk.

He didn’t know how it happened, but suddenly it was 10:38 and his cell phone was ringing from the kitchen. “I wonder who could be calling…” He muttered and made his way quickly to his phone. It wasn’t anyone in his contacts, since he didn’t recognize the number. Regardless, he picked up the device and hit enter. “This is Akashi.”

“Oh, good morning Akashi-san!” It was the woman from the orphanage. “I hope I didn’t wake you up or anything!” Seijuurou had to say he was impressed; for being around children all the time and probably getting very little sleep due to the infants, she sure sounded cheerful and happy all the time.

A small smile came to the redhead’s face and he leaned against the counter. “No ma’am, I’ve been awake for quite a while now.” Hopefully the words ‘quite a while’ would make her think it was just a few hours. “What can I do for you?”

“Actually, I was wondering if you’d be willing to come down to start the paperwork today!” She responded. As if on cue, there was some shuffling around of some papers. “Oh, and the boys told me they wanted to see you. They’re very excited, you know.”

Seijuurou couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit at that. They’d only just met and they were excited. “Sure, I’ll come down in about half an hour. Is there anything I need to bring with me?” As he spoke, he started walking toward his room to grab his wallet and a jacket.

“No sir, just a driver’s license or ID of some sort!” The woman exclaimed, seeming to perk up when she heard Seijuurou would be coming down that day. “Thank you very much, we’ll see you soon!” She waited for a second after she ended her statement, then hung up.

 

\--------

 

The moment Seijuurou walked into the orphanage he was nearly tackled by two very particular six year olds. “Hello, boys.” He chuckled in amusement and pet their hair a little bit.

“Hi!” Lev piped up happily, practically bouncing in place in his excitement. “How are you today, Mister? We’ve been waiting for you all morning~!” His excitement seemed contagious, since Atsushi stood beside him idly bouncing his leg.

“Uh-huh.” The purple haired boy nodded with a lazy smile on his face. “Our caretaker said you were comin’ to do paperwork for the… process or somethin’.” He shrugged a bit; paperwork wasn’t very interesting to six year olds. At least, not this one.

Seijuurou nodded. “Yes, I’m here to start the adoption process.” He offered the little boys a gentle smile and lead them over to a bench to sit down. “There’s a lot of boring paperwork and other processes involved, so it will take some time.”

“Ohhh…” Lev nodded, even though he still didn’t really understand. “So what kinda things do you gotta do, Mister? Do you sign your name on the papers or something?”

“Yes, for most of the papers.” Seijuurou responded. “There are some I have to fill out with information about myself, and I have other legal processes to go through.” He sighed when he thought about the background check and court hearing. “It’s not a whole lot of fun.”

This time it was Atsushi’s turn to nod. “If it’s gonna take a long time, then you should come back every day and see us~” He grinned and crawled onto Seijuurou’s lap, deciding it was his new favorite place to sit. “We wanna get to know you better.”

“Yeah!” Lev chimed in, a big grin on his face. “You already kinda know about us, so we wanna learn things about you too!” He clapped his hands together and leaned forward. “So, first things first! What’s your first name?” Child’s logic; you know our name, we gotta know yours too.

“Seijuurou.” The redhead responded simply. For some reason, he couldn’t help the warm feeling in his chest when Lev’s expression brightened again. His lips curled up into a sweet smile and he pat the young boy’s head. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the woman come out of the office with a folder of papers. “Now, I need to go start the paperwork. I’ll come back and talk to you boys tomorrow.”

The boys nodded and Atsushi climbed off Seijuurou before he stood up. They watched Seijuurou disappear into the office after the woman, then Lev grinned excitedly and grabbed Atsushi by the shoulders. “Man, Atsushi, this guy’s gonna be a really good daddy!”


	3. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get to come home for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy, for once I actually kept my promise and uploaded when I said I would!   
> Don't be expecting that to happen every time lmao 
> 
> But I guess my chapters are just destined to be longer, no matter what I do I just can't keep them very short orz.

The paperwork had taken much longer than Seijuurou had expected. He still ended up taking a lot of it home with him despite telling himself he wouldn’t, and currently sat in his home office working on one of the longer packets. 

Apparently he had let himself get so caught up in his paperwork that the knocking on the front door startled him. “Who--? ...Is that Tetsuya?” He ran his hand through his hair and took off his work glasses. The knocking continued, so he decided to go downstairs and answer the door. 

“Akashi-kun, you’re very slow answering your door.” Of course it was Tetsuya. He had promised to come over the day before, no wonder he was there. A small smile crossed the cyan haired man’s face as he stepped through the threshold. “You look really stressed out. Is everything alright?” 

Seijuurou nodded and closed the door behind them. “I’m fine, Tetsuya. There’s… just a lot of paperwork to get through. Tomorrow, I have to go get a background check. There’s a lot I need to do before I can even think about starting to prepare the house.” 

“Akashi-kun, relax. Take it day by day.” Tetsuya said and put a hand on Seijuurou’s shoulder to make him sit down on the couch. “You made it through today, didn’t you? So if you just think about the day you’re on instead of the days or weeks ahead, you’ll have a much easier time.” 

Seijuurou groaned and pulled his hands down his face. “I know, I know. Next you’re going to tell me I need to take some time out of my day to relax and cool my head a little bit. You’ve given me this talk many times before.” The first time he remembered Tetsuya sitting him down to have this talk was in fifth grade. He should’ve known by then what kind of friendship it would be. 

“I keep giving it to you because you never listen to me, Akashi-kun.” Tetsuya stated firmly. “Every time I come over you’re either stressed beyond belief or haven’t slept in a week.” He was seriously beginning to regret allowing Seijuurou to live on his own; he was such a workaholic he never had time for himself. 

Said redhead just rolled his eyes at him and sighed deeply. “I know. I keep trying to fix it, but somehow I always end up getting stressed out again. Then I can’t sleep, and the cycle repeats.” Which wasn’t completely false. He did always end up letting himself stress out. The sleeping problem… that was another beast entirely. 

“Then maybe having two rambunctious six year olds will help you more than you think.” Tetsuya suggested. He didn’t actually know if it would help at all, but he hoped it did. Especially since he couldn’t always be around to make sure Seijuurou was taking care of himself. “Who knows? You’ll just have to let the chips fall where they may.” 

“Easier said than done…” Seijuurou mumbled as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands. “Tetsuya, I don’t know if I can do this by myself. I’m already stressed and I’m not even actually their father yet.”

Tetsuya rolled his eyes and shook his head a little bit. He gently pat Seijuurou’s back and gave him a gentle, reassuring smile. “I’m sure everything will turn out alright, Akashi-kun. Take a breather again tonight and we’ll see where things lead tomorrow. If you need anything, feel free to call.” 

“Right…” Seijuurou nodded and took a deep breath. He figured he’d be making a lot of phone calls. Not that Tetsuya needed to know that, though. He glanced at the watch on his wrist, then up at the other man. “...It’s getting to be late Tetsuya, you really ought to go home.” 

Tetsuya looked behind him to the grandfather clock sitting against the wall by the parlor door. “Oh, so it is. I suppose I should get home and let Nigou out so he doesn’t wreck the house again…” With a deep sigh, he stood from the couch and stretched a little bit. “You rest tonight, Akashi-kun. If I find out you’ve continued to stress yourself out, I’m going to have to do something about it.” 

Seijuurou resisted the urge to groan as he watched Tetsuya head toward the entrance of the house. “Yeah, okay. I’ll keep that in mind tonight.” A look from Tetsuya said he’d better be keeping his promise for more than that night. “...Fine, I’ll try not to stress. Go home, Tetsuya. I’ll see you later.” 

“Goodbye, Akashi-kun.” Tetsuya smiled softly and left, letting the door click quietly behind him. He sure knew how to get his way with Seijuurou sometimes, now there was no way he was going to get the rest of the paperwork finished that night. 

\--------- 

A few weeks passed as the adoption process continued. The first week was full of nothing but paperwork and background checks, as well as the daily visit to the boys as promised. That entire week Seijuurou felt like he was being stretched in about twenty different ways. Between going to the office, going to the orphanage, and dealing with the court, he had almost no down time. 

Needless to say, he was incredibly grateful when the final part of the process came up. All he had to do was state his case to the judge and he could go pick up his children to take them home. Court appearances had never been too much trouble for him, anyway, so it didn’t take very long. 

It was still late afternoon when he made it to the orphanage because he had to go back to the house and retrieve a few duffle bags for the boys to put their things into. He sighed when he pulled up to the parking lot and sat in his car for a while, thinking about everything that had happened in the past two weeks. “...Well, now there’s really no going back. I suppose I had better go in and get them.” 

It took a while for him to steel himself up enough to get the bags out of the back and start toward the front door. The nerves were really beginning to hit, and he could feel his hands begin to sweat. “Calm down… It’ll be fine.” 

The door swung open before Seijuurou could even reach for the handle, and out popped the young woman who’d been helping with the whole process for the past few weeks. “Good afternoon, Akashi-san! My, you look very nice today. Did you go to court this morning?” 

“Good afternoon.” Seijuurou responded politely, a small relieved smile spreading across his features. “Yes, I needed to complete the hearing. Everything is in order now.” The smile he got in return just made his own grow, and suddenly he felt a lot less nervous. 

Suddenly, two sets of footsteps came running from down the hall, and one very excited little boy came bursting through the doors, followed by a slightly less enthusiastic one. “Hey!! You’re here really late Mister!” Lev exclaimed, sounding fake offended that Seijuurou had taken so long. “An’ why’re you all dressed up?”

Quick to the questions as always. Seijuurou chuckled and bent down to make eye contact with the bouncing six year old. “I apologize for my lateness, but I had to be at the courthouse today. That’s why I’m all dressed up.” The enthusiastic nod he got from Lev suggested the little one understood what he said, but for some reason he didn’t think that was quite the case. “Do you boys have everything ready to go?”

“Uh-huh.” Atsushi nodded, then eyed the bags still in Seijuurou’s hand. “Wait… Why do you have bags with you?” He came over and poked at one of the empty duffle bags, then frowned up at the redhead in confusion. “They’re pretty useless if there’s nothing in them, aren’t they?”

“They won’t be empty for very long, Atsushi.” Seijuurou stated. “I brought them so you two could put your things in them instead of using trash bags. It’s just a little nicer this way.” At least, he hoped it was. He wasn’t sure six year olds knew how to organize their items, but it was the thought that counted, right?

Lev was immediately on board, a broad grin stretching across his already smiling face. “Wow!! That’s really nice of you!” He took one of the bags when it was handed to him and looked expectantly at Atsushi when the other was offered. “C’mon, Atsushi, let’s go get everything packed!” As soon as the words were out of his mouth he was off again, running as quickly as he could back to the room, Atsushi not far behind. 

When the two boys were gone, the worker approached Seijuurou with a gentle smile. “I know you’re worried, but they’re good boys.” She put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and squeezed just a bit. “And, if it makes any difference, I think you’ll make a wonderful parent. Just be patient with yourself.” 

Seijuurou nodded and sighed a little bit as he watched the boys come running back with their now full bags slung awkwardly over their shoulders. “Well, I certainly hope you’re right, ma’am.” He offered a small smile to her and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Are you both ready to go?” 

The two six year olds exchanged looks, then looked back up to Seijuurou and nodded eagerly. “Yep!” Lev exclaimed. “Let’s go!” Without even getting directions as to where the car was, he took off out the front door. Atsushi wasn’t far behind, and they both left Seijuurou no choice but to follow after them. 

“Boys, this way.” The redhead smiled a little as the two turned in surprise while he walked toward the parking lot. “We’re taking my car home, since I live quite a ways away.” As soon as he was sure they were following after him, he took the keys out of his pocket and remote unlocked the car. Once everything was situated and the boys were strapped into booster seats, they took off. 

Lev bounced excitedly--as he always did--and stared out the window in interest. “So,” He started. “Do you have a special somebody?” He glanced toward Seijuurou in the driver’s seat expectantly. “Or are you still by yourself?”

“It’s just me.” Seijuurou replied. “Well… not any more, but I don’t have a spouse.” He turned onto his street and looked through the rearview mirror to check on the boys. “So please be patient with me, I’m still learning how to handle children.” 

Lev nodded. “Okay!” He turned to Atsushi excitedly and grinned. “Atsushi, do you have any questions or anything?” It sounded like he was trying to play big brother; Seijuurou had to admit it was kind of endearing. 

Atsushi shook his head, then opened his mouth to say something before a rather large manor at the end of the street came into view. “...Is that your house?” He asked instead, completely in awe. Beside him, Lev was in the same state of disbelief and amazement. 

“Yes, this is my--well, our house.” Seijuurou nodded and pulled into the driveway. “It’s a little big, so you’re going to need to spend some time getting used to the layout, but I think there’s enough room for you two to get some energy out.”

In the back seat, both boys were still in stunned silence. They just stared as Seijuurou got out of the car and opened the back doors to unbuckle them, then continued to stare as he grabbed their bags from the back. “Whoa…” Lev breathed. 

Seijuurou smiled a bit as he unlocked the door and set the bags inside. He stood at the porch and motioned for the boys to come inside after him. “Come inside boys, I’ll show you where your rooms are so we can get you both settled in.” Hopefully the settling in wouldn’t take too long, there were a lot more important things to take care of concerning family coming up ahead.


	4. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys struggle a little bit with the concept of having that forever home with a permanent dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's been over a month since I last updated... OTL  
> I don't know why I haven't updated this fic in so long, it's so cute and I'm still madly in love with it.   
> Please forgive me for my awful updating schedules ;A;
> 
> Hopefully Chapter 5 will be out before the end of this week! If not, it'll probably be out next week sometime.   
> Or... January. Since I'm bad at updating things orz
> 
> Another thing: Thank you so to everyone who has commented!!! I really appreciate it, and it motivated me to finish chapter 4 and keep going! So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so very much!! I hope you continue to enjoy my writing!!

The boys spent an hour exploring the main floor of the house before they were shown to their rooms. They explored the living room and the kitchen, then ran out into the backyard and played for at least another hour. 

Seijuurou decided then was a good time to sit on the couch and take a breather. It had been a long day; he was exhausted. “If this is what having kids is like, I’m not sure I’m ready for it…” He ran his hands down his face gently and closed his eyes, willing the nagging anxiety in the back of his mind to go away. 

It wasn’t long before he heard the door get slammed open again, and he jumped despite his best efforts to keep the reaction hidden. The two six year olds came bounding in, big smiles on their now dirty faces. 

“Daddy!” Lev chirped as he jumped onto the couch beside his father and snuggled into his side. “This house is really cool!” For having just spent two whole hours running around nonstop, he sure did have a lot of energy. 

Seijuurou smiled tiredly and pat the six year old’s head. “I’m glad you think so, Lev. Did you two enjoy playing outside?” Judging by their now dirty clothes and messy hair, he’d have to say yes, but then again, he wasn’t an expert on children.

“Yeah! Your yard is really big~” Lev nodded excitedly, followed by Atsushi, who had climbed up on the other side of the couch and was leaning against Seijuurou’s other arm. “It’d be really cool if there was a swing or somethin’, too!” 

Atsushi nodded his assent to the suggestion. “Yeah~” He smiled lazily. “A tire swing hangin’ off the tree would be fun~” Really, he didn’t care as long as it was something to play on and mess around with. If he could take a nap on it, it’d be even better.

Seijuurou smiled a little bit and nodded. “We’ll see if I can figure something out, then.” He’d definitely be asking Tetsuya or one of his friends for help with that one, he had absolutely no idea where to even _begin_ looking for a tire swing.

“Really?” Lev’s eyes widened a little bit in surprise. “You’re gonna go get one?!” The way he phrased the question made it sound like he’d never expected anything like that. “Wow, that’s really nice of you!” 

“Yeah, most of our foster parents tell us to be grateful for what we get~” Atushi nodded again, still clinging to Seijuurou’s arm like a lifeline. His lazy violet eyes met with Seijuurou’s curious crimson ones and he shrugged a little bit. 

It took a moment for the redhead to realize what Atsushi thought he was to them. When he did, he frowned just a little bit and shook his head. “Did I hear you correctly, Atsushi?” He asked softly, looking in the direction of the purple haired child. “Do you think I’m just a foster father?” 

“Aren’t you, though?” Lev cut in, his head cocked to the side and his eyebrows raised. “I mean, nobody ever _actually_ adopts us, so why would you be any different?” 

Seijuurou sighed as Atsushi once again gave his agreement to Lev’s statement. They really thought he was just a foster father, didn’t they? He wondered how long it would take him to explain the fact he wasn’t planning on returning them to the orphanage when Atsushi’s voice cut him out of his thoughts. 

“So, when are we gonna go back?” The little boy asked curiously as he poked Seijuurou’s cheek. 

Seijuurou thought for a moment and reflected on his answer. He’d have to be careful about what he said--he didn’t know how sensitive six year olds were--but he had to tell the truth. Hopefully the truth would be a pleasant surprise. 

He sighed and offered a small, gentle smile as both boys leaned in a little closer. “I’m not going to take you back.” That would be alright, wouldn’t it? 

It seemed the answer sent both of the little kids for a loop, because they just sat there staring at him for a moment before Atsushi finally spoke up again, a small frown on his face. “C’mon, you gotta be takin’ us back sometime…” 

“No,” Seijuurou shook his head, keeping his voice soft. “I’m not taking you back. Think about it Atsushi, did any of your foster parents spend three weeks going through paperwork and legal procedures?” He was even lucky, since the police already had his information. Most of the time it took months. 

The young boy thought for a moment, then eventually decided that no, he hadn’t remembered any of them taking that long. He shook his head and blinked. “But that doesn’t mean anything, does it?”

“Yeah!” Lev piped up, a pout on his face. “All that stuff is just to look fancy, isn’t it?” 

At that, Seijuurou had to laugh at least a little bit. “Oh, boys, no… All of that is very important. Especially for those who are looking to create a permanent family like I was.” 

“Permanent…?” Lev raised one eyebrow and turned his head to the side again in question. “What’s that mean?” 

Seijuurou thought for a second. “Life-long. Forever, if you will.” He said finally with a small shrug and a soft smile. “In other words, it means I went through all of that paperwork and all of those procedures just so I could bring you home with me and call you boys my family.”

For a second, time seemed to stand still. Atsushi and Lev looked to each other for a moment, their eyes wide with shock, then back to Seijuurou. Once again, Lev was the first one to speak. “You… you really mean it…?” He asked quietly, his voice wavering as tears came to his eyes. “You’re never gonna take us back to the orphanage?”

“Of course I mean it.” Seijuurou smiled warmly and brought his hand up to pet Lev’s hair. “I have no reason to lie to you, I’m planning on keeping you around as long as I can.” 

Atsushi, who had been quiet up until then, suddenly began to cry. He wrapped his little six year old arms around Seijuurou’s neck and held tightly, tears creating streams down his cheeks. Lev followed soon after, and they both sat like that for quite some time, just crying.

Seijuurou closed his eyes and gently hugged them both, then slowly began to rub their backs to calm them down. Eventually, they seemed to be okay, and they both planted themselves on his lap. “Everything alright, boys?” He asked, concern in his voice as he gently wiped away any stray tears on their faces. 

“Yeah…” Lev sniffled and smiled brightly. “We’re just happy, ‘cause now we got a real dad!” Atsushi nodded, and he beamed. “An’ I bet you’re gonna be the best dad ever!” 

Seijuurou smiled and shook his head in amusement. “I hope you’re right, Lev.”


	5. School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys go back to school at the end of the weekend and Seijuurou meets with some personnel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is really long OTL  
> Oh well, the next chapter won't be as long. Hopefully.
> 
> I'm going to try to get one chapter out daily. If it's a really good day, maybe I'll get two out.  
> Don't quote me on that, though, we all know how bad I am at keeping up with updating fics. *stares at other AU stories I have to finish*
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The rest of the weekend seemed to go by with few challenges, mostly getting the boys settled into the house and the routine. Seijuurou spent most of it learning where the boys’ school was, among a few other child care things. 

Monday rolled around much faster than he had expected or wanted it to. When his alarm went off at 6:30, he groaned and rolled over. “It is not time to get up yet…” He sighed tiredly and finally sat up after a few minutes of ignoring the incessant beeping of the bedside clock, then turned it off and pushed himself off the bed.

“I suppose I should go start breakfast…” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he yawned and began shuffling down the hallway toward the kitchen. It seemed like the boys were still asleep, which was good. The previous days they’d been up way before Seijuurou had even gotten close to being conscious. 

“What to make for breakfast…” The redhead sighed a little bit as he entered the large kitchen and pulled the blinds up to let some early morning sunlight in. Usually, he would just get a granola bar or some dry cereal before going to work, so deciding what to cook was much harder.

Eventually, he decided on a relatively simple breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns. “That would work, right…? I hope they won’t mind…” He ruffled his hair and began to gather what he needed, a small frown settling onto his face. Deciding for himself was easy, but deciding for two other people who were 19 years younger than he was? Incredibly difficult. 

Apparently, he had gotten lost in the cooking, because he didn’t even notice the soft pattering of children’s feet approaching him until there was a hand tugging at his shirt sleeve. He blinked. “Oh, good morning Lev.” 

“Mornin’...” The six year old mumbled and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes tiredly. “Do Atsushi an’ me halfta go to school today?” 

Seijuurou smiled softly and chuckled. “Yes, Lev, you have to go to school today.” He reached down and gently ruffled Lev’s hair. “Don’t you want to tell your teacher about what happened this weekend? You were excited yesterday.” 

At that, Lev got excited all over again. “Oh yeah!” He exclaimed and jumped up and down a few times. “I’m gonna go get Atsushi so we can get ready!” With that, the excitable little boy ran out of the kitchen and toward his bedroom to get dressed. 

Seijuurou chuckled again and checked the clock. “Ah… it’s only 7:15. They have quite some time…” Hopefully he wouldn’t make them late for class. He had a nasty habit of losing track of time and ending up late. “I’ll have to watch myself more closely now…”

Soon enough, both boys came bounding into the kitchen excitedly, chattering away about how their day was going to go. Atsushi stopped to hug Seijuurou’s leg before following his brother into the dining room. “Mornin’, Papa~”

“Good morning, Atsushi.” The redhead smiled and began to put the cooked food on plates for all three of them. Once the food was set, he put the plates down on the table and returned to get some cups. “What would you boys like to drink?”

“Milk!” Both boys replied in unison, then dissolved into giggling fits coupled with yells of “jinx!” and “jinx! again!”. They must have been around each other a very long time if they were that in sync. Seijuurou found it cute. 

Carefully, he balanced the two cups of milk in one hand as he held his coffee in the other. He was greeted with awed looks, and he smiled in amusement. “Surprised I can carry three cups at the same time?”

“Yeah~” Atsushi nodded, his eyes wide as saucers. “That’s really cool, Papa~” He affirmed as the took one of the mugs from the redhead, holding it tightly with both of his hands. 

Seijuurou chuckled softly and sat down as soon as Lev had his cup. “It’s a learned skill. You’ll be able to do that when you get older, too.” With as tall as the boys were, they would definitely have big hands. 

“Whoa…” Both boys paused their eating to stare at their hands in amazement. “Cool!” Lev yelled, a bright smile on his face. “Maybe someday we’ll be taller than you, Daddy!” 

“I wouldn’t be surprised.” Seijuurou sighed a little bit. “Now finish your breakfast so we can get you boys to school, alright?” He checked his watch again. It was only 7:30, but knowing himself, he would forget something when they left. Besides, the woman at the orphanage told him to get to school early for introductions. 

Both boys nodded and began to eat quickly, still pausing occasionally to talk and ask silly six year old questions to Seijuurou about different things, such as “Where are you gonna be after we go to school?” and “Why don’t you go to school any more?”, to which the answers were “I’ll be at home” and “Because I’ve already completed my education”, respectively. 

When the clock hit 7:45, Seijuurou stood and took the dishes into the kitchen. “Do you boys have any school supplies you need to bring with you?” 

“Oh yeah! We gotta go get those!” Lev nodded and grabbed Atsushi by the hand, dragging him down to their rooms again to grab their bags for school. 

Seijuurou took that time to quickly get dressed--something nice, but not terribly fancy--and wait for the boys at the door, his keys in hand. When they came running back out, he smiled. “Ready to go, boys?” 

“Yep!” They both nodded and basically pushed Seijuurou out the door to the car in excitement. Clearly, they were ready to get back to school and brag to all their friends and teacher about their new house and dad. 

“Man,” Lev smiled as he was lifted carefully into his car seat and buckled in after Atsushi, “Takao-sensei is gonna be so excited to meet you!” He just knew it, his teacher was always asking them about their home lives.

“I’m excited to meet your teacher, too.” Seijuurou smiled and closed the door to go around to the driver’s seat. More like he was extremely nervous about it, but he’d keep up the facade for the boys. It would hopefully be an exciting new experience, anyway.

\--------

The elementary school was very nice, to say the least. It must have been recently built, because the entire campus--which wasn’t very big--seemed new. Seijuurou sighed as he turned the car off and got out to let the boys off. It had taken them ten minutes to get there, so it was 8:00 sharp. That left at least fifteen minutes for Seijuurou to get acquainted with the teacher if he was there.

“C’mon, Papa, let’s go.” Atsushi demanded as he started tugging on Seijuurou’s jacket sleeve to make his father start walking toward the gates to the school. “If Takao-sensei isn’t there, you can talk to him after school.” 

It seemed that was decided for him. Seijuurou nodded a little bit and picked up his feet when Lev started pushing him from behind. “Alright, alright, let’s go inside.” 

The kindergarteners both smiled in excitement and ran ahead of Seijuurou to the door, where the principal was standing and waiting for students to come inside. They seemed to talk excitedly at her, and after a while, she turned to look at the young man approaching her, a gentle smile on her face. 

“Hello, you must be their adoptive father.” She reached out her hand for Seijuurou to shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Ms. Horiuchi, their principal.” 

Seijuurou offered a pleasant smile and nodded. “Yes, I am their new father. It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Horiuchi-san, my name is Akashi Seijuurou.” 

“My,” Ms. Horiuchi’s eyes widened in surprise at the name. “how interesting! I hadn’t expected you to be interested in children. Did you get married, then?” 

“Oh, no, I’m afraid I’m still single.” Seijuurou shook his head. “It’s kind of a silly story, really…” He rubbed the back of his neck and rolled his eyes as Lev and Atsushi started giggling. “Well, I suppose it’s getting to be time for school to start, I should head home.”

Ms. Horiuchi nodded and smiled sweetly, despite the surprise still evident on her face. “Right. If you want to meet with the boys’ teacher, you can do so after school. He always waits outside with the children.”

Seijuurou nodded, then pat the boy’s heads before turning to go back to his car. “Have a good day, boys. I’ll see you after school.”

“Bye Daddy!”

“Bye Papa~!” 

\------

Seijuurou felt like he was late as he walked up to the school at 3:01. It must’ve been the new parent nerves, but he could’ve sworn some of the teachers were giving him looks. He just tried to ignore it in favor of finding his own children.

That wasn’t hard. It wasn’t long before Atsushi and Lev were racing each other to get to him, big smiles on their faces.They both came skidding to a stop and reached up to start pulling on his hands. “C’mon, Papa, Takao-sensei wants to meet’cha~!” 

“Alright, alright, I’m coming.” Seijuurou chuckled and followed behind the excited children, straightening when they finally let go of his hands. When he looked up, he was met with bright blue eyes and a friendly smile.

“Hi!” The young man greeted happily and held out his hand. “You must be Lev and Atsushi’s dad! I’ve heard all about you.” 

“Oh, I hope they didn’t cause any trouble…” Seijuurou sighed as he took the teacher’s hand. “Yes, I’m their father. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure’s mine, Akashi-kun~” The teacher laughed a little bit and offered another warm smile. “My name is Takao Kazunari. I’m their kindergarten teacher, in case you couldn’t tell.” He paused for a moment, then spoke again. “They’re great kids, they rarely cause any trouble. They were just excited today.” 

“I imagine they were.” Seijuurou nodded and acknowledged Atsushi with a gentle pat on the shoulder when the little boy clung to him. 

Kazunari laughed a bit, then sighed. “Well, I should let you get home! Before I send you, though, I have one quick question.” He paused, then went on when Seijuurou nodded at him. “Will you be coming to parent teacher conferences? They’re next Tuesday.” 

“Oh,” Seijuurou blinked. He’d forgotten about parent teacher conferences. It wasn’t like he needed to remember them for himself anymore. “Sure. What time are they?” 

Kazunari beamed, clearly happy with the answer. “7:00! I look forward to seeing you there, Akashi-kun! Have a good day!” He waved and turned to go back inside. 

“Good bye.” Seijuurou nodded and sighed a little bit as he followed his kids to the parking lot. “That went better than expected…” He smiled a little bit; now he’d see how they took to seeing someone new at home.


	6. Uncle/Rooms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get to meet their Uncle Tetsuya and a few of his friends, then paint their rooms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning on getting this out yesterday, but I remembered editing was a thing.   
> By the way, s/o to boredInsanity for editing this chapter! 
> 
> Hopefully this isn't terrible haha ^^;

The boys chattered on about their day all the way home; about how excited Kazunari had been for them, and how the kids were all surprised when they were called by new last names. They talked so excitedly, Seijuurou couldn’t help the big smile that crept its way onto his face. 

He pulled into the garage and turned the car off, then took a moment to breathe before going to get the boys from their seats.

“Why don’t you two go inside? I’ll be right in.” He said as he took both of them down from their car seats. “There’s a surprise waiting for you.” 

“A surprise?!” Lev blinked, then turned to Atsushi and grinned. “Let’s go inside and look, Atsushi!” With a nod from the other boy, they both went dashing into the house excitedly, leaving Seijuurou standing in the garage. 

“I wonder what kind of surprise is waiting for us…” Atsushi mumbled as he took off his shoes and put his bag down on the floor. Lev shrugged, and they continued into the living room, where they were both stopped in their tracks. 

Sitting on the couch was Tetsuya. He seemed to be preoccupied by a book and didn’t notice either of them come inside until Lev started yelling for Seijuurou to come in and get rid of the stranger. Finally, the cyan haired man looked up. “Oh, hello boys.” 

“Stranger danger!” Lev shrieked. “Daddy! Someone’s in the house!” 

“Calm down,” Tetsuya mumbled and closed the book. “I’m friends with your father. He invited me over to meet you two.” He offered a small, reassuring smile and stood up. “I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Atsushi seemed to take that as a proper answer, and he grinned up to Tetsuya lazily. “‘Kay, if Papa trusts you, then I trust you too. What’s your name?” 

“Kuroko Tetsuya.” Tetsuya smiled again and sat down in front of the boys. “I’ve been friends with your dad since we were little, so I’ll be by quite often.” 

Lev nodded slowly, finally beginning to trust the young man sitting in front of him. “Okay, then if you’re Daddy’s friend, you can’t be too bad!” Children’s logic. Not that he had any _other_ reasoning skills, he was six. 

Tetsuya chuckled softly and turned as he heard the door open. “Hello, Akashi-kun.” He smiled as Atsushi started to climb onto his lap and pat the purple haired kid’s hair. “It seems your boys like me now.” 

“Now?” Seijuurou quirked an eyebrow in amusement. “As in, they didn’t like you at first?” He was surprised, to say the least. The boys seemed to like pretty much anyone they met. Maybe it was because Tetsuya was just sitting on the couch with no explanation. At least they liked him now. 

“Well, one of them was yelling for you when he first saw me.” Tetsuya shrugged and Lev turned his head away in embarrassment. “I think he thought I was a robber or something.” 

“I didn’t!” Lev pouted as Seijuurou sat down and pulled him into his lap. “I just didn’t know who you were, so I thought you were confused!” 

“A likely story, Lev.” Seijuurou rolled his eyes and pat his son’s hair in amusement. “Tetsuya isn’t confused. He knows where he lives.” He paused and gave Tetsuya a teasing look. “Or, I should hope he does.”

Lev’s pout got deeper and he puffed out his cheeks when Tetsuya gave him a knowing smile. After a few moments, he turned to look his father in the eye. “So, if he’s been friends with you for a really long time, would that make him our uncle?” 

Seijuurou blinked, then looked at Tetsuya for confirmation. The other man shrugged lightly and gave a short nod, as if to say that was alright with him. “Sure, Lev. You can call him Uncle Tetsuya.” 

“Uncle…?” Atsushi tilted his head slightly. He didn’t think of this man as an uncle type, much less Seijuurou’s brother. “But he’s not Papa’s brother, so that doesn’t make sense.” The six year old pouted at his father and crossed his arms. 

Tetsuya smiled and shook his head. “Well, Atsushi, sometimes people don’t have to be related to share a close bond with each other.” He explained simply and gently pat the child’s cheek. “Remember how I said I’ve been friends with your father for a long time?”

“Uh-huh…” The purple haired kindergartener nodded slowly. “What’s that got to do with anythin’, though?” Tetsuya wasn’t making any sense. Why would he bring up his friendship to his dad again?

“Well,” the cyan haired man sighed a little bit, “it means we’ve had a lot of time to get close to each other. We’re not related, but we’re almost like brothers to each other. Does that make sense?” He offered Atsushi a small, patient smile as the young boy thought it over. 

“...I guess so.” Atsushi nodded and shrugged after a while. “So we’re gonna call you Uncle Tetsuya, right?” 

Tetsuya nodded and gently ruffled Atsushi’s hair. “If you like. If not, just Tetsuya is fine with me.” He looked up to the clock and sighed. “Well, it’s getting late, and I need to go home and let Nigou out.” He carefully moved Atsushi off him and stood up, stretching his legs a little bit. 

“It was nice to meet your kids, Akashi-kun. I’ll be back this weekend with a few of my friends to help paint their rooms.” With that, he gave Seijuurou a light, teasing pat on the cheek and waved goodbye as he walked to the front door and left. 

Once Tetsuya was gone, both boys turned to their father with wide eyes. “We get to paint our rooms this weekend?!” 

\--------

As expected, the boys anxiously awaited the weekend. On Friday, they had all gone out to pick colors to paint their rooms and some extra decorations to put on the walls (bunnies and flowers, at the suggestion of Atsushi), and they spent the entirety of the evening trying to convince Seijuurou to let them start that night. 

Finally, Saturday morning did roll around. It was early when the boys came screaming into Seijuurou’s room to wake him up, and they wouldn’t take his sleepy “no”s for answers when they asked if he’d call Uncle Tetsuya. 

Eventually, the red haired man just gave up and grabbed his phone from his bedside table. “...Sorry for calling so early, Tetsuya, but the boys wouldn’t let me sleep any more. They want to start painting as soon as possible.”

Tetsuya chuckled from the other side of the line, followed by a small yawn. “I understand. I’ll call my friends in just a moment.” He paused for a second, thinking. “Do you think you can keep them occupied for another half an hour?”

“I can try.” Seijuurou sighed a little bit. “Thank you, Tetsuya. The front door will be unlocked for you whenever you get here.” With a hum of acknowledgement from the other man, he hung up and set his phone down. Now he just had to think of how to entertain the boys for half an hour…

Which, incidentally, was incredibly easy. Letting the boys use him as a jungle gym and playing imaginary games was much easier than he had expected. Before he knew it, there were footsteps in the living room and Tetsuya was calling for him to come downstairs. “Ah, they’re here.” He smiled as the boys stopped hanging off him and went to run downstairs. “Be careful!”

“Okay Daddy!” Lev called back, despite taking the stairs way faster than he should’ve been with Atsushi right on his heels. 

Seijuurou followed behind them after getting dressed and smiled to Tetsuya and his two mysterious friends from the top of the stairs before coming down to join the group. “You two must be Tetsuya’s friends, then.” 

“Ah, yes. This is Sawamura Daichi,” Tetsuya nodded and motioned to the brunet, “and Sugawara Koushi. They’re good friends of mine from college.” 

Seijuurou nodded and shook both of their hands with a friendly smile and quickly introduced himself before turning to the boys. “I’m sure Tetsuya has mentioned them, but these are my children. The purple haired one is Atsushi, and that’s Lev.”

“Oh, how precious~!” Koushi smiled and leaned down to reach out his hand for the boys to shake. “They’re adorable kids, Akashi-kun! I’m sure you’ll be a good dad.” He turned to Daichi for confirmation, and the other man nodded with a confident smile. 

Seijuurou smiled nervously and rubbed his neck. “Well, thank you…” At least he wouldn’t be terrible, as far as these two were concerned. “Now, the boys are a little impatient… I think they’d like to start painting now.”

“Oh, right!” Daichi nodded and held up a bag of painting supplies. “We brought stuff to use! Let’s get started!” 

It took a moment to get Lev and Atsushi to come with them, but eventually the group made it down the hallway. “Why don’t we split up to help the boys separately?” Koushi suggested with a small smile. “That way we’ll be done before lunch!” 

“Sounds like a plan.” Tetsuya nodded. “Maybe we should let the boys pick who goes with who.” 

At that, the boys looked at each other. “Okay…” Lev mumbled after Atsushi gave him a look. “Then I wanna go with Daddy and Sugawara-san!” 

Atsushi nodded and grabbed onto Tetsuya’s leg as Daichi came to stand beside the short man. “‘Kay, let’s get started~” 

The adults all nodded and divided the painting supplies before following the boys into their rooms to begin the paint job. Of course, since Lev and Atsushi were six, they didn’t have very long attention spans and tended to get distracted in the middle of painting something, but eventually, their rooms did get done; Atsushi’s in a few shades of purple with rabbit decals (and a few painted ones from the boy himself), and Lev’s in different shades of blue, with green on the bottom and flower decals all over. They were charming, to say the least, and very childlike. It fit them both perfectly. 

The group spent the afternoon talking and playing games Tetsuya brought over, such as Twister (which was both incredibly amusing and a little bit dangerous) and a few other board games to pass the time. When it got dark, Tetsuya, Daichi, and Koushi bid the other three goodbye and left the house. 

Seijuurou yawned as he cleaned up the living room and went to close the windows in the boys’ rooms. “Boys, it’s time for-- Oh…” He smiled softly as he leaned over the back of the couch to find them both sound asleep on top of each other. “Well… it has been quite a long day.” 

Carefully, he picked up both of the children and carried them to their respective rooms. Once they were tucked in safely and comfortably, he turned out the lights and began up the stairs to unwind. “That solidifies that, then… They are definitely part of my family now.”


	7. Music Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys go exploring and end up finding the music room. Seijuurou gets an idea based off their interests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the wonderful boredInsanity for editing this chapter for me! 
> 
> I'm sorry this one took so long (and chapter 8 much longer), but I promise I'm working on this story!   
> Hopefully I'll have chapter 8 done by tonight, but if not, I'll definitely get it done by the end of the week.

For the first few weeks, Lev and Atsushi spent their time after school either with their father or exploring the huge house. Certain rooms were off limits, such as the office, but almost any other room was fair game for their curiosity. 

One day they decided to venture upstairs by Seijuurou’s room, since they’d only ever gone up there to wake him up or peek into his office and see if he was working--he had started working from home when the boys started living there. 

“C’mon, Atsushi! I think there’s a room down by the parlor we can go into!” Lev whisper yelled, as though Seijuurou _wasn’t_ sitting in the parlor with the door open listening to them while he read. “There’s big doors, so it’s gotta be important!” 

Atsushi nodded and followed after his brother to the room with the big doors. They both stopped, then the purple haired kid pushed one of the doors open--which took quite a bit of effort, since he was just a six year old. 

What greeted them wasn’t exactly what they expected. Honestly, they didn’t know what they had expected, but it wasn’t a music room. A large music room, at that. In the far corner by the large windows sat a grand piano, propped open as if it had been played recently. Perhaps Seijuurou had been in there playing earlier that week?

Off to the side was a harp and a chair, then other instruments were in various places around the room. The one that caught Lev’s eye was a beautiful rosewood violin sitting beside its bow on a stand. “Oh, look Atsushi! That one’s pretty!” 

“It looks weird.” Atsushi frowned a little bit as he stared at the violin. “An’ it’s got holes in it, so it’s probably broken.” He shrugged and continued to look around, his attention continuously getting caught by the piano by the windows. “I think that one’s prettier, anyway~” 

Lev turned and looked at the piano. “That’s too big, Atsushi! There’s not even any way for you to get up there! This one’s much better.” Why couldn’t Atsushi see he was right? Clearly, the violin was much prettier and better than the piano was.

“Nuh-uh! This one’s better!” Atsushi turned and stuck his tongue out at Lev indignantly. “That one looks funny, Lev! It probably sounds funny too!” 

Lev gasped, then frowned deeply and turned to go out into the hallway. He ran quickly toward the parlor, yelling for Seijuurou to come solve the dispute between him and his brother. “Daddy! Atsushi’s sayin’ mean things to me!” 

Seijuurou, who had been reading, looked up with a concerned frown. “What is it Lev?” He set down his book and stood up, then kneeled down in front of the upset child. “What was Atsushi saying to you?”

“Well, we went exploring, and we found this really cool room with a buncha weird lookin’ things, but Atsushi kept sayin’ the one I liked looked funny.” Lev crossed his arms and pouted deeply. “Make him, stop, Daddy.”

Seijuurou sighed and gently pat Lev on the head as he pushed himself up off his knees. “Alright, I’ll come help you out.” He smiled softly when Lev asked to be picked up and held the child close to him. “Let’s go solve this.”

Atsushi was sitting on the floor of the music room pouting when Seijuurou came in. “Papa,” He whined, “Lev’s bein’ mean to me!” 

The redhead sighed and set Lev down as Atsushi stood up to come over to him. “Is this over the instruments?” Both children nodded despite not exactly knowing what the word ‘instrument’ meant, and he looked around the room. “Which ones?”

Lev pointed at the violin and Atsushi pointed at the piano. “That one!” Both boys said at the same time, then glared at each other. 

Seijuurou almost wanted to sigh, but their anger was actually sort of cute. Especially since they had picked two of his favorite instruments. “Boys, they’re both wonderful instruments.” 

“How would you know, Papa?” Atsushi asked, his little hands resting on his hips indignantly. “It’s not like you’ve played them before, right?” 

Lev nodded his agreement. “Yeah!” He didn’t know why he would agree, but he figured maybe they were just for show. He’d seen that a lot in the movies and TV shows he’d watched at the orphanage, especially of wealthy people. Seijuurou seemed pretty well off, so why wouldn’t he be the same way?

“I wouldn’t have these instruments if I couldn’t play them, boys.” Seijuurou chuckled with a playful roll of the eyes. “This _is_ the music room, isn’t it?” Neither of the boys really seemed to get it. “Yes, boys, I can play these instruments.” 

Atsushi still didn’t seem satisfied. “But what one does Papa like best?” He just wanted to know if his pick was better or not. If it wasn’t, he’d probably not want to come back and try playing it. 

Seijuurou thought for a moment. He’d grown up playing both of them, so he didn’t really have a preference. “Would you accept my answer if I told you I don’t like one more than the other? Would that be alright?”

Lev nodded, but it took Atsushi a moment to accept the answer he’d been given. Eventually, he sighed and nodded as well. “I guess so~...” Apparently, he still wasn’t very happy with it, but he could let it slide.

“Good, then.” Seijuurou smiled gently. “You both seem very interested in these instruments, though…” Both boys nodded enthusiastically. “Interesting…” He looked to the piano, then to a closet on the other side of the room by the harp. “I have an idea, why don’t you boys go sit down for a second?”

“Okay!” They both nodded and sat down on a few of the chairs that were set up, their previous fight completely forgotten in the excitement of the new idea. 

“I wonder what Daddy’s doing in the closet.” Lev wondered aloud as he watched his father disappear into the large closet for a while. “Is there somethin’ in there?” 

Atsushi shrugged, his eyes still on the piano. He didn’t care what it was, as long as he could eventually sit down on that bench and mess with it. It looked pretty, and he wanted to learn how to play. “I dunno.” 

Moments later, Seijuurou returned from the closet with a small box in his hand and a few folders, already labeled with Lev and Atsushi’s names. “Come here for a moment, Lev. Atsushi, you may go sit on the piano bench.” 

Lev jumped out of his chair and ran over to Seijuurou excitedly as Atsushi lifted himself onto the piano bench and sat before the keys. “What is it, Daddy?” 

“You liked the violin, didn’t you?” Seijuurou asked, and Lev nodded. “Well, I still have the half sized violin I played as a child. Would you like to learn how to play?” 

Lev paused for a moment, his eyes wide in surprise and excitement, then he nodded excitedly. “Yeah! Will you teach me, Daddy?” 

“Of course I will.” Seijuurou smiled and handed the violin over to Lev. “Be careful with the instrument, alright? We’ll start lessons at the beginning of next week.” 

“Okay! Thank you Daddy!” Lev nodded and held the violin case carefully. He took the folder when it was handed to him and went to sit down and admire his new instrument. 

Atsushi turned on the bench and kicked his feet idly. “Papa, are you gonna teach me how to play this?” He put his hand on the piano and tilted his head curiously.

“Sure, if you’d like to learn.” Seijuurou nodded and walked over to put a hand on Atsushi’s shoulder. Atsushi nodded, and he smiled. “Then how about we start the day after I start with Lev? Is that alright with you?” 

“Yeah~” Atsushi nodded happily. “Thank you, Papa~” He was definitely excited to start, even though with his little fingers it would be a little hard. “You’re the best~” 

Lev looked up and nodded his agreement with a big smile. “Yeah, definitely the best! Our daddy is the best ever!” 

“Oh, boys… I didn’t do anything special…” Seijuurou sighed a little bit, a rosy blush tinting his cheeks in embarrassment. He couldn’t help the small smile creeping onto his face, though, and found himself incredibly happy that they thought of him as a good parent. He hoped he could keep that up.


	8. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that the boys have finally settled back into school life and gotten used to life at home, they can finally go make some friends. Well... one of them can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god it's been ages since I've updated this fic. I've had the edits sitting around on my desk for quite some time now, and I've just been too lazy/busy to input them and post this chapter.   
> Well, here's chapter 8!
> 
> Unfortunately, because of my musical rehearsal schedule, I'll be putting this story on hiatus. It should only last until the end of February.   
> Maybe on Sunday after all the performances are over, I'll sit down and try to write chapter 9. We'll see.
> 
> Thank you all so much for your patience, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Lev was always the most excited to go to school in the morning. It meant he could go talk to other kids, get to know his teacher a little better, and play around without worrying about making Seijuurou angry.

Atsushi on the other hand would rather spend his entire day at home lazing around the house and spending time with his father. He didn’t particularly like the other kids--they were too loud--and, as nice as Kazunari was, he didn’t really think of him as much of a friend. 

Regardless, neither boy had really gotten the chance to make many friends at school. They’d spent so much time getting used to being in school and going through all the hoops with the administration that it didn’t seem much of a priority. Now that they had settled down, though…

They had all the time they wanted to make new friends and get assimilated into the school community better. Of course, Lev was the first one to jump on that opportunity. 

“I’m gonna make so many friends at recess today!” He exclaimed happily as he ran out of the classroom to the playground, Atsushi hot on his heels. “It’s gonna be awesome!” 

Despite Lev’s excitement being extremely contagious, Atsushi wasn’t feeling up to it. “Whatever.” He shrugged. He didn’t really feel the need to many any new friends; he had his brother and his dad. That was more than enough for him. 

Lev rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway. “Well, I’m gonna go talk to people! Bye, Atsushi!” He waved and ran off toward two boys who were sitting on the swings talking. He’d seen them around before, and he wanted to get to know them.

“Hi!” He greeted cheerily as he approached. One of the boys--a short, timid looking kid with long-ish hair and hazel eyes--jumped a little bit and turned his head toward Lev; the other just grinned and waved.

“Hey.” The boy returned the greeting. He had a mess of black hair atop his head, and his brown eyes looked droopy, like he was still sleepy. “You’re that kindergartener who just got adopted, right?” At least, he  _ thought  _ that’s who he was talking to. He’d seen the kid leave with about a million different adults; or so he thought.

Lev nodded. “That’s me!” He smiled brightly and put his hands on his hips proudly. “My brother’s over there somewhere, probably sulking ‘cause I’m not playin’ with him today.” 

“Oh, fun.” The kid laughed and turned to his friend with a small smile; which was returned, but only briefly. “So what’s your name?”

“Akashi Lev!” Lev exclaimed, happy he remembered his new last name without messing up. 

Both boys’ eyes widened a little bit, but the one who’d been talking the whole time nodded. “Cool. I’m Kuroo Tetsurou, and this is my friend Kozume Kenma. Nice to meet’cha.” He let go of the chain on the swing and held out his hand for Lev to shake. 

Kenma didn’t seem nearly as interested as Tetsurou did, but he nodded and offered a shy smile. “Nice to meet you…” He mumbled and stared down at his feet. 

Lev beamed happily and nodded. “Nice to meet you too!” He felt giddy, and rightly so; he’d just made his first school friends. It would definitely be cause for celebration at home when he told Seijuurou about them. 

Tetsurou laughed a little bit and jumped off the swing. “You’re kinda fun. We should play together next recess.” He glanced over to Kenma, who shrugged. “We’ll probably be over here again. Come find us, okay?” 

“Okay!” Lev nodded. He turned back to find Atsushi, and found the purple haired boy glaring daggers at Kenma and Tetsurou. If looks could kill… 

He sighed. “I’ll find you later, I gotta go talk to my brother.” 

“Okay…” Kenma nodded, and Tetsurou gave him a thumbs up. “Bye, Akashi-kun.” 

“Bye-bye!” Lev waved and ran off to go talk to Atsushi, who had since started sulking on the bench with his arms crossed. Not even the playground teacher could get him to get off and go play. 

When he heard Lev approaching him, Atsushi turned his head away and puffed his cheeks out. “Did you make some friends?” He asked, bitterness tainting his typically sweet voice. As hard as he tried not to be, he still ended up jealous over Lev’s ability to make friends. 

“Yeah, I did! They’re really nice.” Lev nodded and smiled. “I like them a lot!” He figured they were at least a grade older than he was, but it didn’t matter. He had made friends. “I bet you’d make friends if you tried, too!”

Atsushi frowned up at his brother and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.” He mumbled. He didn’t really think he  _ needed  _ friends. He had Lev and Seijuurou; wasn’t that enough? Why did Lev keep telling him to make friends? 

“Oh, come on Atsushi!” Lev whined and rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Why do ya gotta be so difficult?” Of all the times the other boy could be difficult, it had to be then. It was so frustrating sometimes. “Do ya even  _ wanna  _ make friends?”

Atsushi shrugged, but the look on his face screamed “no”. Of course he didn’t. “It doesn’t matter to me…” He mumbled and kicked his legs. “Why should I halfta make friends? None of the kids like me here anyway.”

Lev pouted. “That’s not true!” He didn’t know if it was or not--all he’d ever seen was what went down in class under Kazunari’s careful gaze--but he wanted to give his brother the benefit of the doubt. 

“Yeah-huh.” Atsushi frowned deeply. “The other kids say I’m mean.” He didn’t think he was mean, he thought he was being normal. He guessed the other kids just couldn’t handle his blunt way of speaking. Then again, he was only six. He had no clue.

Lev’s pout deepened and he sighed heavily. “Well, I don’t think you’re mean! I mean, I guess  _ sometimes  _ you can be a little mean, but not all the time! Those kids are just dumb for saying that.”

Atsushi rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but Lev’s my brother. He doesn’t have any reason to defend me.” He sighed, hoping the other boy would just drop it. When Lev just gave him a look and ran off again to find his new friends, he sighed. 

 

\--------

 

The rest of the day was slow; too slow. Even nap time seemed to go on forever, and it made all the kids restless. When the last bell finally rang, everyone was grateful. 

“Alright kids, let’s go outside and wait for your parents!” Kazunari exclaimed as he stood up from his desk and began to leave the classroom, his entire class following behind. 

Lev and Atsushi stood beside their teacher until the familiar figure of their father could be seen coming up the walk, then they both started to push through the older kids to get to him. 

“Daddy!” Lev exclaimed happily as he bounded over to the redhead. “You’ll never guess what happened today during recess!” He grabbed his dad’s hand and began to pull on it impatiently. 

Seijuurou raised an amused eyebrow and looked down to the excited six year old. “Oh? And what’s that, Lev?” He hoped it wasn’t something dangerous. Or that the young boy didn’t get in trouble with someone. 

“I made some friends!” Lev chirped and flashed a proud grin. “They’re older than me, but they’re really fun!” He seemed so excited, it was almost contagious. 

Seijuurou couldn’t help but feel beyond relieved at the news, and a smile came to his face. “Oh, that’s wonderful, Lev! I’m very happy for you.” He gently pulled his hand away and ruffled his son’s hair. “Where’s your brother?” 

“Right here.” Atsushi mumbled as he finally caught up. He didn’t want to hear about Lev’s friends again, it would just make him mad. “Papa, can we go home now?” 

“Sure.” Seijuurou nodded, a concerned frown crossing his face for only a moment. When he glanced down to Lev for an answer, the other boy just shrugged and shook his head. “Let’s go home, boys.” 

Both boys nodded and began to follow after their father; Lev more energetically than Atsushi.

“Oh!” The silver haired six year old exclaimed suddenly when they stopped at the car. “Daddy, aren’t you gonna start teachin’ me violin today?” When Seijuurou nodded, he practically squealed. “Yay, I’m so excited!” 


	9. Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Music lessons were supposed to start that day, but can one man handle two boys on different instruments?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After like... four months of being on hiatus, I have returned with a new chapter!   
> Like I said in other works, I'm implementing a new writing schedule. 
> 
> From now until June 22, Permanent Home will receive an update every two days! Look forward to new chapters!

Lev spent most of the car ride home bouncing excitedly in his seat and chattering about all the things he was looking forward to. Most specifically, he chattered about the upcoming violin lessons and how he was going to become the best violin player in the whole world. 

Atsushi mostly just sat there listening to his brother, occasionally adding his own thoughts and answering Seijuurou’s questions about his day. He was less excited to start music lessons--at least, on the outside--but was definitely ready to spend time with his father. 

When they reached the house, Lev ran inside without even grabbing his backpack. “Come on, daddy! We gotta start soon so I can get good at playing already!” He bounced in the doorway for a while before turning and bolting up the stairs. 

Seijuurou chuckled quietly to himself and unbuckled Atsushi. “Are you ready to start lessons today too, Atsushi?” He bent down to pick up the discarded backpack and offered a gentle smile. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, though.”

“Nah,” Atsushi shook his head and hopped down out of the car. “I wanna start today too.” He didn’t want Lev to have something else he didn’t. That, and the piano just looked so fun he wanted to start playing as soon as possible. 

“Alright.” Seijuurou nodded. “Go up to the music room, then. I’ll meet you boys there in just a moment.” As soon as Atsushi nodded and ran off after his brother, he locked the car doors and made his way inside. 

“Where to start…” He mumbled, thinking to himself and recalling his lessons from his childhood. The teacher had always started with playing open notes on the violin, and learning the keys on the piano. It shouldn’t be too difficult to learn; if the boys actually paid attention.

“I better not keep them waiting too long.” The redhead sighed and ran a hand through his hair. If he was being completely honest with himself, he wasn’t sure he’d make a very good teacher. The thought made him a little nervous, but he had to push that aside. The boys were counting on him to teach them how to play instruments. 

Eventually he started making his way upstairs, still deep in thought about how to teach Atsushi and Lev. “They probably have different learning styles… And they’re not learning the same instrument…” That realization just made his job 10 times harder than it already was. Teaching one child one instrument would be hard enough, but two? He didn’t know if he could do it. 

He didn’t even make it up the stairs before the boys came running out to greet him. “Daddy!” Lev whined, “You’re taking too long! Come oooooon!” He dashed forward to grab his father by the wrist and pull him into the music room, where he had somehow managed to pull the violin out of its case and set it on the ground, and Atsushi had--somewhat--pulled the bench away from the piano. 

“Papa, who are you gonna teach first?” Atsushi asked as soon as Seijuurou had straightened himself out. “I wanna learn how to play piano now.” The instrument was foreboding and huge, but he was  _ really  _ eager to get started. Especially if he could get started before Lev could. 

Seijuurou internally rolled his eyes as both boys gave him puppy dog looks and bent down to meet their gaze. “How about I set you up on the bench so you can press the keys for a while while I help Lev learn how to hold the violin?” 

Atsushi thought for a moment and put a finger to his mouth, as if in deep thought. “‘Kay, as long as I get to play today.” 

“Fair enough.” Seijuurou smiled and lifted the purple haired boy onto the piano bench, pushed it in, and went over to where Lev was standing with his violin. He was currently wondering which hand he would have to hold it in, and staring at the aged, slightly worn wood of the body. 

The redhead smiled and grabbed his own violin from its stand. It would be easier to teach if he had his own. Or at least, that’s what he figured. He  _ hoped  _ it would be easier to teach that way. “Alright, Lev, let’s learn how to hold your instrument.” 

“Okay!” Lev nodded enthusiastically and picked up the little violin. When he saw how his father was holding his, he tried to mimic it as well as he could. Unfortunately, the instrument was a little heavier than he thought it would be.

Seijuurou almost laughed, and pressed his chin down to hold the violin between his shoulder to help Lev. “Bend your arm a little bit, and cup your hand like you’re holding an egg.” Lev nodded, and though he didn’t  _ quite  _ get it, he was at least better. It was a start. 

Meanwhile, Atsushi sat on the piano bench and stared at the keys. There sure were a lot of them on there… He wondered if he could ever reach all the way across it. For now, though, he would just press keys and see what they did. 

So he did just that. Except he pressed way too hard on the keys, and instead of the light sound he was expecting, it came out as a clashing chord. It was pretty jarring, to say the least, but it didn’t stop him from doing it again and again. 

Seijuurou, who had been working on getting Lev to hold his hand the right way, nearly dropped his violin when he heard the slamming of the keys. He sat it down on the music stand and rushed over to the piano, gently grabbing Atsushi’s hands. “Atsushi, not so hard. You’ll break the piano.” 

“Eh~?” The purple haired boy looked up at his father in confusion. “I thought this was how you played though~” 

Seijuurou sighed and closed his eyes. “Yes, you play with your fingers, but you must be gentle.” Finally, he let go and placed his hand over the keys to demonstrate with a chord, then moved Atsushi’s hand and did the same thing with it. “See? Like that.” 

“Oh… okay~” Atsushi nodded, only to go back to pounding on the keys again. “Like that?” 

“No, Atsushi.  _ Gently. _ ” Seijuurou groaned. “Press only as hard as you need to to get the key to go down, and nothing more.” 

Atsushi nodded and tried his hand at doing just that, but didn’t really seem to make it very far. He frowned and looked up at his dad in frustration. “I don’t get it, papa.” 

“That’s okay, we can work on it later.” Seijuurou smiled softly and ruffled the six year old’s hair. 

He looked up and back over to Lev, and noticed the silver haired boy with a deep pout on his face. Apparently, the fact he had been spending time trying (and failing) to get Atsushi to understand the whole pressure thing wasn’t sitting well with him. 

They spent at least another ten minutes going back and forth that way, with Seijuurou wearing himself out running between the boys trying to give them both the attention they needed, before he figured out Atsushi couldn’t read music and Lev… well, he was actually doing incredibly well. 

After he sent the boys to go play, he ran his hands down his face and looked around the messy music room. “...I need a piano teacher.” 


	10. Teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for parent teacher conferences. What will Kazunari have to say about the boys?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't get this out on Sunday like I was supposed to, but that's what rest days are for.   
> Tomorrow is chapter 11~

“Papa,” Atsushi yawned as they walked away from the school one afternoon. It had been about a week, and since it was almost time for the semester to turn over, it was time for parent teacher conferences. “Takao-sensei wants us to tell you the conferences or somethin’ are comin’ up soon.” 

“Oh, when are they?” Seijuurou asked curiously. He didn’t actually expect Atsushi to have remembered that, but it would be great if he did. Or if Lev could pipe up with it; he was better at remembering those kinds of things. 

Luckily for him, Lev did decide to pipe up. “They’re this Friday!” He exclaimed as he bounced in front of his brother and father excitedly. “Takao-sensei  _ really  _ wants to see you there, Daddy!” 

“I’ll make sure to go, then.” Seijuurou chuckled. He would have to mark it on his calendar so he wouldn’t forget. He didn’t think he would, but with how crazy his life had been for the past few weeks, he wouldn’t put it past himself. 

Both boys seemed to light up at the thought of their guardian deciding to go to the conferences and actually talk to their teacher. They gave each other excited looks and dashed ahead toward the car, giggling and chattering at each other excitedly. 

“I wonder why they’re so excited about parent teacher conferences…” Seijuurou hummed and unlocked the doors so the boys could clamber in without needing to wait for him. He shrugged and helped them both into their carseats, opting to ignore the burning question in the back of his head for the time being. It could wait until Friday. 

 

\-------

 

The end of the week seemed to come a lot faster when something was coming up. It had been a few years since Seijuurou had actually anticipated an activity at the end of the week, so he had forgotten about the feeling entirely. 

He didn’t necessarily mind said feeling, though. It was kind of nice to get excited about the little things again. Made life much more interesting. Especially when one had two little boys who were equally as excited--if not more so--than he was. 

“C’mon Papa!” Atsushi called from the front of the school, bouncing in place. “We’re gonna be late!” Even though he and Lev had  _ demanded  _ they leave at least ten minutes earlier than needed to get there on time. 

“I’m coming!” Seijuurou called back, feeling almost like he was out of breath. He couldn’t believe how much energy six year olds could have. They had spent the whole afternoon running around like a couple of monkeys on a sugar high and  _ still  _ wanted to go play on the playground while he talked to the teacher.  _ I don’t think I ever had that much energy… even as a little kid.  _

Apparently, the boys’ loud and excited talking alerted the principal, who came outside to quiet them down and ask where their father was. Her attention moved to the approaching redhead as both boys pointed to him, and she smiled. 

“Hello sir,” the brunette held out her hand for Seijuurou to shake, “you must be one of the boys’ adoptive parents, then? I’m the principal of this school.” 

“A pleasure to meet you,” Seijuurou laughed in amusement at the question. “I’m the only one, ma’am.” Though he had to admit it would be much easier to have someone else at home to help him. His amusement only increased when the woman’s eyes widened in surprise. 

“Unmarried, and you took on these two raggamuffins?” She laughed heartily and shook her head in disbelief. “You are quite the young man, aren’t you?” She paused for a second, looking said young man over a few times before she seemed to finally remember where she knew him from. 

“My goodness! You are the young heir to the Akashi estate, aren’t you?” 

“I am.” Seijuurou smiled and nodded. “I had completely forgotten, but this school was the one the company funded to be rebuilt after the earthquake a few years ago.” 

The woman nodded enthusiastically, a bright smile crossing her face. “We are incredibly grateful, Akashi-kun, it was very generous of you to do that.” She glanced down at her watch, then giggled to herself. “I’ve kept you so long now, though. Your boys are very anxious for you to get inside.” 

“Oh, yes, I’m sure they are.” Seijuurou chuckled. “It was a pleasure meeting you, miss…” 

“Yumi Aiko.” Aiko smiled. “It was a pleasure to meet you as well, Akashi-kun. Have a good evening.” With that, she let Seijuurou pass before her and disappeared into her office. 

Seijuurou sighed and ran his hand through his hair. The hallways were lit well, but since it was getting dark already, he couldn’t help but feel a little creeped out at the length.  _ Curse Daiki and his horror movies… _

“There you are!” Lev poked his head out of the kindergarten classroom and ran out to pull his father in by the wrist. “Daddy, you talk too much! Takao-sensei is waiting for you!” 

“Sorry, Lev.” Seijuurou sighed and pet the pouting child’s hair. Once assured their father was inside the classroom, Atsushi and Lev ran out to the playground to go where the rest of the children were playing. 

Kazunari stood from his desk and offered a friendly smile as the redhead approached, as well as a firm handshake. “Glad you could make it, Akashi-kun! For a while, I thought you were going to give us a rain check.” 

Seijuurou could feel his face heating up slightly at the comment, yet he smiled and shook his head. “I want to be as involved as I can be in their lives, Takao-kun.” Anything to set himself apart from his father. “And I am curious to know how they’re doing in school.” 

“Oh, they’re great!” Kazunari grinned as they both sat down. “Very excited, now that they’ve finally settled down and stopped bouncing from family to family. It was rough there for a while.” And frustrating on his end. 

“Good to hear.” Seijuurou hummed. He had remembered the boys talking about being foster kids a few times, and how their other guardians had bounced them around so often they never really stayed in the same place for more than a few weeks. “Did any of the other families they stayed with ever come to talk to you?”

At that, the black haired teacher rolled his eyes and snorted. “God no, they couldn’t be bothered. One woman wouldn’t even come pick them up. She made her thirteen year old do it.” He sighed and shook his head. “The excuse I heard the most was that it was too much work for kids they weren’t even planning on keeping around.”  

“You’re kidding.” Seijuurou frowned. No wonder the boys had been so wary at first, despite their excitement about the prospect of getting adopted. “That’s awful.” 

“Yeah, pretty much all of them sucked.” Kazunari shrugged. “So I hope you don’t take it personally or anything, but I kind of expected it to be the same situation all over again. Especially when I heard you were a busy business man with no significant other.” 

Seijuurou laughed quietly and shook his head. “No, I understand. Usually a single man with a lot to do doesn’t adopt children and do much with them.” Most single men with a lot to do didn’t do much with their own children, either. 

“You really are a good guy, aren’t you?” Kazunari smiled. “I’m glad. Those boys really need someone who will care about them like that.” He sighed a little bit and closed his eyes. “Speaking of… I’m a little worried about Atsushi’s lack of interest in other people.” 

Seijuurou sighed and rested his head in his hand. “He still isn’t working on making any friends?” That was concerning, to say the least. The last thing he wanted was to have Atsushi be lonely his whole childhood. 

“I don’t think so…” Kazunari shook his head. “I think he thinks he’ll be able to stay with Lev as “best friends” their whole lives. And he’s jealous of Kenma-kun and Kuroo-kun for “taking him away”.” That’s how he saw it, at least. Whether that was true or not was up to Atsushi. 

Seijuurou closed his eyes for a moment. “Well, I’ll talk to him about it. Thank you for telling me, Takao-kun.” 

“Not a problem.” Kazunari offered a gentle smile. “If there’s anything I can do to help you out, don’t be afraid to ask. I do work with kids for a living, after all.” He winked and laughed. “No but really, if you’re totally losing your mind just call.” 

“Thank you, Takao-kun.” Seijuurou chuckled and stood up and stretched. “I will keep that in mind, and I’ll be sure to come and check in with you every once in awhile.” 

“Great!” Kazunari exclaimed happily. “I look forward to seeing you more often, then! Don’t overdo it, though, because you do look exhausted.” 

“So I’ve been told.” Seijuurou smiled. “Well, I’ll see you around. Have a good night, Takao-kun.” 

“You too, Akashi-kun.” 

Seijuurou sighed as he headed toward the playground. He couldn’t shake the worry over Atsushi’s lack of friends, no matter how silly it seemed. “I hope that won’t cause any problems for him…” 


End file.
